Decent Men Need Not Apply

Decent Men Need Not Apply

Making Sense, by Michael Reagan

The message was loud and clear: there is no longer any room for the likes of Joseph Lieberman in the Democratic Party.

Forgotten were Lieberman's decades of service to his party, his vice presidential candidacy in 2000, his years of loyally voting for his party's liberal measures in the U.S. Senate and his incredible decency. All that counted in this week's Connecticut primary was his support of the war in Iraq and his refusal to go along with the cowardly cut-and-run group that has taken over his party.

In their eyes this was the unforgivable sin, and for committing it he earned the scorn of the left-wing crazies who have managed to take control of the party of Harry Truman, Scoop Jackson and John F. Kennedy. He simply had to go.

I may disagree with many of his liberal political positions but I bow to no one in recognizing the undeniable fact that he is that rarest of all politicians -- a decent, honest, deeply religious man whose word could always be trusted.

In a sane political party those qualities alone would earn him the loyalty, support and respect of his fellow Democrats, but in the party of Howard Dean, Michael Moore, George Soros and MoveOn.org those qualities don't matter. In that party, decent men and women need no longer apply.

There has been much talk and all kinds of proof that a crazed, well-financed segment of the Democratic Party had taken control; what happened in Connecticut Tuesday showed it to be a fact. From this point forward, only those willing to sign on to the hate-America Stalinist policies of the party's now-dominant left wing will survive.

The rest will follow Joe Lieberman into the new Gulag reserved for those Democrats who refuse to bow their knees to the reigning monarchs of the extreme left and insist on putting principle aboveparty.

I trust that most of my fellow Americans are as shocked as I am over this turn of events. There is no longer a rational dialogue between the two major parties, or even within the Democratic Party itself. The deranged babbling of the Soros-MoveOn.org loonies is now the only language spoken.

This is a disaster for the Democrats. It has converted what was a legitimate - if frequently wrong - political party where seemingly rational political policies were advanced, into a cabal of unhinged ideologues where no dissent is permitted.

It could also be a disaster for the nation should the loonies of the Democratic left prevail in the fall elections. To begin with, we would quickly witness a replay of Vietnam -- a war we won on the battlefield but lost in the halls of Congress which, while claiming to support our troops, slashed the military budget to the bone, de-funding the war.

The end result was the creation of a communist regime in Saigon, and the imprisonment and death of a million Vietnamese -- a nation condemned to slavery under the brutal Hanoi dictatorship.

If the crazies gain power on Capitol Hill we can expect to see their cut-and-run policies put into play by the simple expedient of choking off the finances required to fight the war. With our troops withdrawn, we could expect to see Iraq and the entire region descend into chaos, depriving us of our vital Mideastern oil supply lifeline.

Moreover, should we flee from our solemn commitment to help pacify Iraq and secure for the Iraqi people a stable democracy, what other nation would be able to trust us to keep our promises? Taiwan would see itself as defenseless and Japan would be forced to go nuclear to defend itself.The message would be loud and clear to all -- Uncle Sam is not a trustworthy ally.

The left has already made it clear that they plan to harass the president and start impeachment proceedings in the middle of a war, no less. They make it plain they will increase taxes and cripple theeconomy, and return to their cherished goal of imposing a socialist system on the American people.

The Connecticut primary was a red flag warning us of what's ahead.

Mike Reagan, the eldest son of the late President Ronald Reagan, is heard on more than 200 talk radio stations nationally as part of the Radio America Network. Look for Mike's new book 'Twice Adopted'. Order autographed books at www.reagan.com. Email Comments to mereagan@hotmail.com.